Taj Mohiudin says, Sham Lal Sharma doesnt know how to run ministry
SRINAGAR: Cracks within the state Congress appeared widening Wednesday when senior party leader and Health Minister Taj Mohiuddin alleged that Minister for Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC)Sham Lal Sharma has little knowledge of the functioning of the department and due to non-serious approach Srinagar city drowned.
Taj Mohiudin, who has headed the I&FC Ministry in the past, accused Sham Lal Sharma of adopting non-serious approach vis-à-vis taming Septembers devastating floods, saying had the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) been adopted during the floods, Srinagar would have been saved of this devastation.
Taj said that the regular patrolling over the rivers was not carried out during floods resulting in breach of river Jehlum at several places. He also castigated Sharma for his carelessness and non- seriousness which led to the wide scale disaster in the Kashmir Valley particularly Srinagar.
It was unexpected that waters could enter Srinagar and drown it dreadfully. This was unbelievable for all of us that waters above 15ft entered Srinagar and devastated the business hub Lal Chowk, Taj said.
Sham Lal Sharma doesnt know how to run his ministry. The carelessness led to devastation. His abrupt reactions over my earlier revelations about floods clearly reveal that he has been unnerved and has no patience to hear the truth, he claimed.
The Health Minister added that four battalions of NDRF arrived in the Valley and that the concerned ministry also failed to utilize their services on ground. I believe that if serious attitude would have been adopted and regular patrolling alongside the side would have been carried out, Srinagar could have been saved along with other areas as well, Taj said.
The Minister remarked that breaches witnessed in the river Jehlum happened because of the failure in adoption of the SOP and had the patrolling alongside the river been undertaken same could have been averted.
Pertinently, breaches alongside Jehlum turn out to be a debatable issue with army and some civil society members accusing that the state authorities failed to tackle flood crises and that the delay in breaching the Kandizal embankment drowned the summer capital.
Also after the remarks of the army that government delayed the breach of Kandizal embankment, PHE and Irrigation Minister Sham Lal Sharma came out in open snubbing the army by asking it not to judge the performance of the state government. KNS
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